


on trusting your gut:

by bakedgarnet



Category: Incredibles (Pixar Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hevelyn - Freeform, alternate ending to the goggles scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 16:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16350092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakedgarnet/pseuds/bakedgarnet
Summary: In which Elastigirl stops Evelyn from getting the goggles on her, and Evelyn must confront her actions earlier than anticipated. Oneshot.





	on trusting your gut:

“I’ve always suspected it, I guess I just didn’t want it to be true.”

 

Evelyn breathed a laugh at Elastigirl’s words, the corners of her lips just barely turning upward as she ducked her head and stared down into the deep red liquid of the wine in her glass. She swirled it around a bit, bouncing the leg crossed atop her other one absently. It was a long while before she responded, and the silence rained over the two of them like the sky had been holding it over their heads all day and finally let loose. 

 

“I didn’t want it to come to this, you know,” Evelyn said.

 

Elastigirl paced the darkened room with slow and deliberate steps, her narrowed eyes never once leaving Evelyn even as she sat so languidly in the desk chair. The screens behind her were nothing but a disorienting blur of fuzz, disconnected from anything in a last ditch attempt to foster some sort of trust.

 

Who was she kidding, though? Elastigirl’s trust had fizzled and disappeared just as quickly as she put all of the pieces together. Evelyn would consider herself lucky if she even got out of this encounter alive, what with the fury that was rolling off of the other woman in waves. The supersuit had once seemed formal, familiar, even. Now the grayish-silver of the metallic material glinted dangerously at her in the flickering light from the screens, and the noise of the celebration only two sets of doors and a hallway away made Evelyn feel like she was being cornered and held at gunpoint.

 

“Really? What did you want it to come to? What was your endgame?” Elastigirl shot back, the mask doing an interesting job of accentuating her drawn eyebrows and intense gaze. Evelyn slowly raised the glass back to her lips and took a slow sip to bide her time as her brain shuffled through several different responses and the possible resulting reactions from the Super in front of her. 

 

“My endgame… was for us both to win,” Evelyn admitted, quickly dropping her gaze to the goggles that lie broken down the center on the floor between where they faced off. The blue light within them was blank, and her brain took it upon itself to run a mental diagnostic and analyze exactly what would have to be done to put the device back together. She blinked out of her mind’s eye of blueprints and equations and looked back up into Elastigirl’s face.

 

“The Screenslaver was supposed to terrify all of those blindly trusting  _ idiots _ you enjoy saving so much. They were all going to finally see how much they relied on technology to protect them from themselves, and wake the  _ hell up _ . You and all the other Supers would get to parade around for a few months, get the fanfare and all that other bullshit--” Evelyn stopped, realizing that she was getting far too passionate for a question that required one simple answer, not a tangent.

 

“My endgame was for people to fear the technology they’re enslaved to and for Supers to be the fear’s mode of transportation. You get to save the day, regular-Joe citizens realize that you aren’t so awful after all, television sales plummet, people start learning to defend themselves instead of calling on you-- this way you get to be Super without there being a fire to put out every five minutes, and everyone is empowered enough to handle the trivial shit.”

 

Evelyn shrugged, throwing back the last of her wine and slamming the glass down onto the desk behind her with more force than she intended. It left a damp circle of condensation near the computer’s controls. 

 

“That answer your question?”

 

Elastigirl simply stared at her for a long while, her pacing slowing itself down until she was entirely still.

 

“You tried to put those on me,” she pointed out, gesturing toward the cracked goggles on the carpeted floor with the tip of her shoe. Evelyn chuckled humorlessly, guiding her bottom lip between her teeth as she shrugged once more. The taste of merlot wine was strong on her own tongue.

 

“I panicked.”

 

Elastigirl scoffed, taking a sudden step toward the other woman and snatching her up by her collar with a quickness and force that seemed to startle both of them. 

 

“Why should I believe a word you say if every single thing out of your mouth since the day I met you has been a lie?” 

 

They were so close that their breaths mingled, brushing together and disappearing rapidly as the situation escalated. Evelyn’s heart pounded angrily behind her chest, making her face and hands hot and calling for her to escape Elastigirl’s grip immediately. She forced the reaction down and made herself remain collected as she stared defiantly up into deep brown eyes that were so familiar it disturbed her.

 

“Because none of it was a lie. I may not have told you everything about my intentions, but I have  _ never _ lied to you.”

 

The glare that overtook Elastigirl’s face genuinely worried Evelyn for a moment, and watching her nostrils flare, she tensed up in anticipation of a physical blow that never came. Instead, the Super took a deep breath and reigned in her anger, for which Evelyn couldn’t tell if she was annoyed with or relieved by. 

 

“That’s deception, and you  _ know _ it.”

 

Evelyn jutted her chin outward defiantly, only barely aware of how much closer it brought their faces, “Not in my rule book.”

 

“It sure is in mine,” Elastigirl shot back immediately, the hand around the collar of Evelyn’s dress tightening with a threat that never made its way into the air between them.

 

“So where do we go from here, if both of us believe we’re right?” Evelyn asked casually, never breaking the intense eye contact between the both of them. The chill of the room disappeared with their close proximity, and the warmth swimming in her chest from the wine did nothing to bring it back either.

 

“ _ You’re _ going to jail,” she growled, “Who’d you put in the suit to do your dirty work?” Elastigirl asked the second question suddenly, as if just coming to the realization that someone else was paying for Evelyn’s crime in that very moment behind unforgiving bars in an even more unforgiving penitentiary.

 

“Here’s the thing, I don’t think I am.”

 

Elastigirl jerked Evelyn forward in a sudden burst of rage, “ _ Who _ did I put  _ in jail _ ?” She gritted through clenched teeth.

 

“Pizza delivery guy,” Evelyn answered through an amused smirk, her eyes glinting with mirth. 

 

“He was surly… and the pizza was cold.”

 

The smack that landed across Evelyn’s face didn’t even register until it was too late, and the delayed stinging hurt more out of shock than the actual blow. Pursing her lips and nodding twice, still in Elastigirl’s grasp, she took the hit in stride.

 

“Should’ve seen that coming.” 

 

“I wanted to trust you, to believe that you were different— believe that my gut was wrong.”

 

The grip on Evelyn lessened just a bit as a regretful look passed through those troubled brown eyes. The mask did a great job of hiding how large they really were, innocent if she didn’t know better, but Evelyn noticed. 

 

Evelyn saw it all.

 

Elastigirl continued after a long, considering pause, “I would’ve helped you if you’d just been honest with me.”

 

The feeling that tightened itself around Evelyn’s chest was one she recognized as guilt, but avoided taking ownership of for the simple fact that if she did, she’d be liable to lose her conviction right then and there. Something about Elastigirl had nearly thrown her plans off track several times before, but this time all she had left was her self-assuredness in her own actions, and she’d be damned before she let the Super take that away from her, too.

 

“I didn’t trust you very much, either.”

 

Elastigirl’s eyes widened for a split second before she schooled her features back into one of stagnant anger, but Evelyn caught the surprise. She caught everything Elastigirl did. That was nearly her downfall so many times before.

 

“Ironic of  _ you _ to say anything about trust,” Elastigirl spat, eyes narrowing as she tightened her grip around Evelyn’s collar once more. Evelyn flinched backward out of instinct when she did so, and scolded herself for reacting to something so small. Every reaction the hero pulled out of her, the more ground she gained in their face off.

 

“I suppose it is,” Evelyn murmured, suddenly realizing how long they’d been in each other’s immediate space. She could see every single eyelash outlining the other woman’s earthy brown gaze, and every blemish embedded in her black mask from however much harm came to it during battle. Her breath smelled faintly of some sort of sweet wine, and damn it if Evelyn’s eyes didn’t keep dropping to her lips for a reason she would loathe to admit.

 

The silence stretched between them for longer than either anticipated, the other woman not saying a single word in response to Evelyn, merely allowing them to stay suspended in that infinite amount of closeness for as long as she could stand. Evelyn was terrified to move closer or away, or even to blink for fear that the slightest movement would destroy this moment between them— and she then knew that she needed to confront why she wanted it to remain intact in the first place.

 

“In another life, I think things could’ve been different between us,” Evelyn’s finally said, quiet enough and gentle enough that they both knew exactly what was between the lines of such simple words. They were heavy with other meanings, with feelings neither were ready to acknowledge, and they sat between them heavy and suffocating.

 

Elastigirl pulled back a bit, keeping her hand loosely on Evelyn’s collar until she was just cupping the side of her neck, and the look in her eyes made Evelyn wonder if she was about to get emotional. Instead she blinked several times and composed herself with a swiftness that shocked her.

 

“They could’ve been different in this one,” Elastigirl sighed before pulling away entirely and taking a step back. She looked upon Evelyn with disappointment in her gaze, and whether the feeling was toward her, or their situation, or both— Evelyn was almost sure she knew.

 

“Then maybe it’s not too late,” Evelyn shrugged, running her hands up and down the expensive material of her dress around her thighs in an effort to wipe away the clamminess that accumulated during their standoff.

 

“Evelyn—“ Elastigirl began, exasperation coating the way that she sighed her name.

 

“It’s not too late for you to help me, still. This way we can both still get what we want. Nothing but full disclosure from me from this point on— what do you say?”

 

After a long and reluctant pause from Elastigirl, Evelyn tried again.

 

“You get to save the day from my villain, you outsmart him and get the glory, the ability to come out of hiding. I scare the public away from their precious technology and make competent citizens who make their own choices, and who you don’t need to save from their own stupidity every second of the day. We both win.”

 

Elastigirl finally looked back up at her from where she had been intently studying the floor, “What about that kid you have in jail for you right now?”

 

Evelyn waved a single hand, “You’ll be surprised by the ways money takes care of the law.”

 

“As someone who defends those laws, you know that makes me even more reluctant to trust you,” the hero said, but something in her tone told Evelyn that she was already on board.

 

“And yet, you’ll do it. Won’t you?”

 

And Evelyn could tell that Elastigirl hated her for being right, but also that she didn’t hate another single thing about her.

 

That was all she needed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, much love to you all! More one-shots are coming up, so check in with me over on tumblr (bakedgarnet.tumblr.com)


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